WASHINGTON – A rogue artist has “jokerized” the U.S. Capitol building and released the following statement:

Listen, this whole “jokerization” thing barely made sense when somebody in L.A. first did it to Obama.

Now it seems like every other day a new politician gets jokerized, and the quality of the Photoshopping keeps deteriorating. Some of these might even be done in that Microsoft “Paint” program.

So today I skipped ahead to the logical end of all this jokerization and jokerized the building where everybody in Congress works. Everybody. There are no Congresspeople left to jokerize because I basically did them all. Please, please, let this be the end of this stupid meme.

UPDATE: Fearing that an ironic meme might emerge in the wake of the “jokerize” phenomenon, the artist has reportedly acted preemptively by “penguinizing” the already jokerized Capitol:

Does anybody else think it’s kind of strange that in the USA, we behave like prissy throne-sniffers regarding a President’s address to Congress, while the British Parliament is alive with boisterous repartee and heckling? Witness this 2007 feud between Prime Minister Gordon Brown and David Cameron–

(And please do not cite procedural esoterica. I am aware that differences exist, but that’s not the point.)

UPDATE: From Slate:

In the United Kingdom, prime ministers expect less decorum from representatives. Every Wednesday while the House of Commons is in session, the prime minister spends half an hour answering questionsâ€”and enduring boos and snide remarksâ€”from Members of Parliament.

UPDATE: I guess the answer to my question is “yes.” Alex Massie from The Daily Beast in praise of hecklers.